One of Charlie on the MBTA's field correspondents reports from Newton Center, where Riverside service was halted thanks to a newish bridge raining concrete on the tracks. She reports T employees not only handled the shuttle-bus service well but even looked out for the comfort of inconvenienced riders, offering to let them warm up on waiting buses.

Mike Mennonno writes that the T map on at least one Red Line car indicates which Red Line stops to get off at for "cute boyz."

Talonvaki was at the Porter Square T stop last night heading inbound when the announcement came on that service was suspended in both directions because of a "medical emergency" at Harvard, and that riders should go upstairs for shuttle buses:

... So I get up to the surface along with everyone else and there's lots of shuttle buses going to Alewife. But Harvard and points south? Not so much. Some people took the 77 bus, but then one of the drivers said it wasn't a shuttle and was making people pay again. ...

The driver on the 426 pulled up in front of an ice-covered stop instead of where the waiting passengers could avoid the ice. Hilarity ensued.

Boston requires property owners to clear the sidewalks in front of their property. Naturally, the law doesn't apply to public authorities, such as the MBTA, which maybe is why one entire side of Belgrade Avenue in Roslindale Square (from South Street to Corinth Street) is covered in ice - it's next to the T's Roslindale Village commuter-rail stop. They couldn't even be bothered to clear away the ice at the bus stop where seven different lines are supposed to pick up and discharge passengers (that's the retaining wall for the train station parking lot next to the sidewalk). Picture taken Sunday afternoon, several days after the nor'icester.

The Metro has a nice write-up of Charlie on the MBTA today.

The reporter also, indirectly, gets an answer to Paul Levy's question about what T officials do with complaints posted daily on Boston-area blogs: Not a hell of a lot (then again, that's hardly a policy change at the T):

Philip Greenspun ponders why the T has fares at all:

... If we paid the true costs of our transportation lifestyle, car owners would pay at least $5 per day for driving in the city and T riders would get free coffee and donuts as a thank-you.

Being trapped on a B car listening to them chant "BC sucks!"

I've got to hand it to the Boston DPW - they did an excellent job keeping our Roslindale street plowed and sanded (a salt/sand truck even came by again around 8 a.m.). Up in Allston, however, Harry Mattison provides photographic proof that the city didn't do such a hot job. What about where you are?

Would it surprise you to learn that the MBTA didn't do a very good job clearing away Green Line platforms?